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Article: Bastard means Hollywood agent. (the demise of social pressure and responsible behavior) (column)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- November 4, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LET US NOW praise insensitivity before it's too late. The old adage that sticks and stones may break our bones but words can never hurt us is not true. Words do hurt, and can therefore help in stanching what the New Euphemists call "a breakdown in the social order."
The Sensitivity Industry started with a 1941 movie, Blossoms in the Dust, starring Greer Garson as Edna Gladney, the Texas woman who campaigned to have the word illegitimate removed from birth certificates. The movie's message that the word illegitimate follows people through life is dramatized in the account of the character who commits suicide rather than produce her bar-sinistered birth ...